The Life Cycle of our Sun: From Birth to White Dwarf

#StellarEvolution #Astronomy #Astrophysics #CosmicJourney #StarLifecycle #ScienceExplained #SpaceEducation #SolarEvolution #CelestialPhenomena #StarFormation
In this video, I will take you on a journey through the life cycle of low-mass stars, particularly focusing on stars similar to our sun. We’ll explore how these stars evolve over time, fueled by nuclear fusion, from their birth as protostars to their eventual transformation into white dwarfs. We’ll start by revisiting the basics of stellar evolution, emphasizing that most stars are relatively unremarkable, with less than half the mass of our sun. These low-mass stars form the backbone of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and their life cycle can often be summed up succinctly. However, we’ll dive deeper into the fascinating transformations they undergo. First, we look at the evolutionary track of the sun. Once born, a star like our sun will spend approximately 10 billion years in its main sequence phase, where it burns-or more accurately, fuses-hydrogen into helium. As the hydrogen depletes, the sun enters a red giant phase, growing significantly in size and shedding its outer layers. Over time, it will form a planetary nebula, leaving behind an inert, shrunken core-a white dwarf. Throughout the video, I will explain these stages using detailed charts and graphs, illustrating the complex interactions between gravity and nuclear fusion that drive stellar changes. We’ll see how the sun’s core temperature changes, leading its outer layers to swell, cool, and eventually be expelled into space. During the red giant phase, the sun will lose a significant portion of its mass through powerful stellar winds, ultimately leading to the final stages of its life cycle. We’ll observe how the helium flash ignites new nuclear reactions, creating a brilliant but short-lived phase known as the horizontal branch, before the sun becomes a red giant once more and eventually a white dwarf. Moreover, we’ll touch upon the fates of smaller stars, which, due to their fully convective interiors, burn their fuel more efficiently and remain stable for much longer periods-up to a trillion years. In essence, this video isn’t just about how stars like our sun live and die. It’s also about understanding the broader cosmic processes and the interplay of forces that govern stellar evolution. Join me as we delve into the universe’s stellar symphony which reveals the past, present, and future of the stars we see in the night sky.
The Sun's Phases of Life: en.wikipedia.o...
Stellar Evolution: en.wikipedia.o...
Red Giant: en.wikipedia.o...
White Dwarf: en.wikipedia.o...
Degenerate matter: en.wikipedia.o...
Planetary Nebula: en.wikipedia.o...
Many Planetary Nebulae: en.wikipedia.o...
Asymptotic giant branch: en.wikipedia.o...
Red Dwarf: en.wikipedia.o...

[@thetobi583]

Hello Jason! I've been busy with life, so I need to catch up on some lectures. I'm listening to the intro while writing this, and it sounds like I missed some fun with star formation... That's next in the queue. Thank you for putting these out for the masses

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

Welcome back! Yeah, I have a LOT to do fcom here on out.

[@jimmirow]

@@JasonKendallAstronomer I'm new to the channel and only a year in on all things astro/cosmo. A great learning source here! Thank you.

[@j.2047]

If anything, it should be held safely away from their dirty hands

[@johnspringer8882]

The legend gives again!

[@ryandietz7878]

What happens in the core stays in the core

[@dougdouglas2112]

@@ryandietz7878 LoL

[@Choofalong]

Missed the premiere this time but good to see one of your long form videos!

[@JasonKendallAstronomer]

Thanks, I'm planning more long-form videos.

[@raemont1328]

Hey I love your Cosmology Videos

[@zhavlan1258]

😅

[@bradr3541]

Thank you!!!!!!!!! ❤❤

[@JohnBl7167]

Baysian Stats on big Solar Flare So we really do have 12 years to save the planet. "While solar flares are a frequent occurrence, extreme flares are much rarer events and have the potential to cause disruption to life on Earth." "We estimate there to be a 95% probability that a Carrington-like event (165 years ago) will occur once, on average, every 50-176 years; crude comparisons to recently-published work might put this at once every 20-6500 years."

[@Jaggerbush]

First

[@Jaggerbush]

I hate this comment... you had to have been watching this live to get the joke.

[@otrondal]

4.

[@barefootinbriefs]

Wouldn't the very center of the sun contain heavy elements that Sol has collected, not made? What would happen to an iron asteroid as it descends into the sun?

[@regnadkcin6702]

No, he means made. Heavy metals in the giant gas cloud that condensed to form the sun. The sun is big, it contains about 99 percent of gas the solar system formed from, the leftover bits formed the planets, asteroid belts and the ort cloud. An iron asteroid hitting the sun, is like a spec of dust hitting earth.